Ashutosh Mishra 
Bhubaneswar: In the wake of Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD’s) first defeat in Odisha, the real challenge before its president and outgoing chief minister Naveen Patnaik is keeping his flock together. The party, which drew a blank in the Lok Sabha for the first time, has won 51 seats in the 147-strong state assembly and can play the role of a strong Opposition. With good floor management and understanding with the Congress, which has 14 MLAs now, the BJD can make life difficult for the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government which is expected to taker oath on June 12.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
But all this is possible only if the regional party shows the will to fight back and its leadership manages to keep its MLAs united as there is intense speculation about a possible bid by the BJP to break the party. With Patnaik, who has been the sole vote-catcher of the party since its formation in 1997, in his late seventies and his health having been made a public issue by the BJP which built its entire election campaign around it, an atmosphere of uncertainty seems to have enveloped the BJD though no leader would speak about it openly.
Speculation in this regard continues despite Patnaik trying to clear the air over the issue while speaking to media-persons in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. “There have been some questions on my health. I want to say here quite categorically that my health has always been fine and continues to be so,” he asserted. However, there is no guarantee that such statements from the former chief minister would put an end to conjectures with regard to his health, especially since his political opponents appear hell bent on playing it up.
Right now age is the only factor which seems to be against Patnaik who has not only accepted the verdict gracefully but also sought to keep the morale of his party workers and the newly elected MLAs high. Speaking to media-persons after interacting with party leaders at Naveen Niwas, his official residence, the five-time chief minister made light of the BJD’s debacle saying that winning and losing was part of democracy. While asserting that his party would continue to serve the people of the state as it had done in the past he also put up a strong defence for his trusted lieutenant, bureaucrat-turned-politician V.K. Pandian who, in public perception, has emerged as the main villain in the BJD’s embarrassing defeat.
Also read: Decoding BJP’s Odisha Win: ‘Overconfident’ Naveen Patnaik, Modi’s Aggressive Campaigning
Instead of leaving Pandian, whom he called a man of integrity and honesty, to fend for himself he described the criticism being directed at his aide as unfortunate and praised his contribution to the state as an IAS officer and also to the BJD as its member. Pandian, on his part, has announced his retirement from active politics in keeping with the promise he had made during the campaign. The Tamil Nadu-born 2000 batch IAS officer, who had said that he would take “sanyas” from politics if the BJD lost the election, on Sunday released a video message in which he spoke about his commitment to serving the people of Odisha and his conscious decision to withdraw from active politics.
“The biggest earnings in my lifetime have been the love and goodwill of the people of Odisha. My intent of joining politics was only to assist Naveen Babu, and now, consciously, I have decided to withdraw myself from active politics. I am sorry if I have hurt anyone on this journey. I am sorry if this campaign narrative against me has had a part to play in BJD’s loss,” he said.
Pandian said he left the IAS and had joined the BJD to assist his mentor Patnaik. “My only intent was to help him, as anyone would do for his mentor and family. I would like to set straight certain perceptions and narratives. Perhaps, it has been my shortcoming that I have not been able to effectively counter some of these political narratives. I reiterate that I came to politics to help my mentor Naveen Patnaik ahead of the gruelling elections and I had no desire, whatsoever, for a specific political post or power. That’s why I was neither a candidate nor was I holding any post in Biju Janata Dal,” he said. One of the key factors behind the BJD’s poor showing in this election was the “outsider” perception created by the BJP about Pandian who wielded considerable clout within the BJD and the state’s administrative machinery. During its campaign, the BJP also sought to convince people that Pandian was the chosen successor of Patnaik even though the latter trashed such speculation and asserted that the bureaucrat-turned-politician was not his successor.
While Pandian’s role in the just-concluded election remains a matter of debate with faint murmurs against him within the BJD itself, Patnaik’s public stance defending him is being seen as a good sign in that it shows that he is a strong leader unfazed by criticism. “Any other leader would have found it convenient to make the former IAS officer a scapegoat under these circumstances to deflect criticism from himself. But Patnaik has shown that he remains firm and can defend his team even in defeat. These are the qualities of a good leader who is in control of himself as well as his party. If he continues in this vein he can keep his party intact in the face of threats of a likely split being engineered by his enemies,” said political analyst Shashi Kant Mishra.
Also read: How V.K. Pandian Scripted Naveen Patnaik’s Humiliating Electoral Loss in Odisha
This is not the first time in his 27-year-old political career that Patnaik has faced a challenge which is likely to put his mental toughness to test. He has been through such situations before and managed to survive almost unscathed. For him one of the most awkward moments as a chief minister was cross-voting by almost 15 BJD MLAs in favour of his friend-turned-foe, former union minister Dilip Ray in the Rajya Sabha election of 2002. While the election of Ray, who later joined the BJP, was humiliating for him, defiance of the party whip by the MLAs constituted a huge challenge to his leadership.
But realising that acting in haste against the rebel MLAs could weaken his own position within the party which had come to power in the state for the first time only two years ago Patnaik maintained restraint. A strong believer in the adage that revenge is a dish best served cold he waited for the right opportunity to deal with some of the key rebels who had embarrassed him in that biennial poll. It was a test of his political resilience which he passed with flying colours.
Patnaik, in fact, loves challenges as they put him on his mettle and bring the best out of him. This has been evident right from the beginning of his political career which took off in 1997 following his father Biju Patnaik’s death. Naveen was called upon to defend his father’s Aska Lok Sabha seat in a by-poll which had become a prestige battle for his opponents who sought to project him as an outsider who neither spoke Odia nor did he have any understanding of state’s culture. Naveen, the Delhi-bred socialite author, had nothing except his father’s name to support his claim to the constituency. The battle was the first test of his grit and he won it comfortably with people of Aska being floored by his simplicity and sincerity. For them he was the worthy son of a worthy father.
In the years that followed, Patnaik demolished one electoral record after another, leaving his illustrious father far behind in terms of pure political success. With five back to back wins in the assembly elections he emerged as the longest serving chief minister of the state and his BJD the most successful regional party Odisha has seen. Now in the wake of the BJD’s first electoral defeat he faces yet another challenge, perhaps bigger than any other he has faced in his career so far.
Political analysts like Shashi Kant Mishra believe Patnaik can bounce back if he manages to keep his MLAs intact. “He has enough MLAs to put up a spirited fight against the government. He should don the role of an Opposition leader with all sincerity and raise issues which will help him strike a chord with the people. The defeat, in fact, can have a salutary impact on the BJD which can now reinvent itself by shaking off the complacency which was one of the most important factors responsible for the debacle,” said Mishra.
Former BJD MLA Latika Pradhan, who lost the Kabisuryanagar seat to the BJP this time, agreed that the party now has the opportunity to strengthen itself by making course corrections and taking up popular issues. “Let’s wait for the new government to take oath and begin the work. I am sure we will have a lot of issues to highlight and win back the love and confidence of the people,” she averred.
Read all of The Wire’s reporting on and analysis of the 2024 election results here.